February 7 - 11

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston finished reading "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King."  He said it was his favorite in the series.  He's now wearing a gold necklace with a gold ring around his neck so he can be Frodo.  ;)

Preston also worked on journaling the Constitution, memorization, reading upcoming books for book discussions, writing assignments and math review.  He also LOVES his technology class where he is learning all about filmmaking and editing.  He's been working on a new stop motion that will probably take him a few weeks. 

MARISSA

Marissa has been working on a lot of language arts this week.  She also worked on writing and creating for the Valentine's party in her Ninja Scholar class.  

She did an awesome narration of The Ugly Duckling on an audio file, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to put an audio file (mp4) on the blog.  

CALEB

Caleb wrote a song this week.  He used the same notes in the song he was practicing for his group piano class and changed the pattern and then put words to it.  Then Marissa sang it while he played it.  So awesome!  

OTHER

P.E.

Our family has been working on putting together a small gym in our garage so we can get exercise in the winter a little bit easier.  We hung a pull-up bar, a yoga trapeze and a heavy bag.  Everyone has been having a great time using the space we have set up and getting in extra exercise in addition to their normal P.E. classes (karate, tumbling and Ninja Warehouse) every week.  

January 31 - February 4

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston finished reading "The Great Little Madison" and participated in a book discussion in his Key of Liberty class.  He also worked on journaling the Constitution.  He finished all the articles and will now go on to work on journaling each of the amendments.  

MARISSA

Marissa gave a presentation in her Ninja Scholar class this week.  She did amazing!  She taught the class about rabbits.  She did the research, a poster and talking points for her presentation all by herself.  

CALEB

Caleb worked on reading and handwriting this week.  He finished reading a "Princess in Black" book (which are books that are definitely not just for girls).  He also read some smaller readers for his "All About Reading" assignments and worked on more basic cursive handwriting skills.  He's doing great! 

He built a really cool ramp structure in his Heroic Youth class.  They learned about the Von Trapp family this week.  He also had show and tell.  He had to work on some strong emotions since his cork gun that he brought to show the class broke and it was really special to him.  After getting settled and talking it through a bit, he went back to class and shared the other half of his show and tell which was a magnetic license plate from Moab, UT with his name on it.  It was definitely good practice for emotional resilience and grit during class this week!  

OTHER

P.E. (SWIMMING)

We went swimming as a family to the South Davis Recreational Center this week.  The kids had a great time and all practiced their strokes in the pool.  They surprised us with their fearless desire to jump off the high dive.  So much fun!  

January 24 - 28

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston also learned about legislation in his Key of Liberty class and got to practice voting on laws with a fun simulation using snack foods.  

Preston attended Winter Formal this week where he got to practice what he has learned in his "Social Dance" class.  It was so fun to see him dancing and having a great time!  

MARISSA

Marissa has been reading "Box Car Children" and really enjoying it.  She is almost finished with the first book in the series.  

Marissa did a pastel drawing in her class this week.  She really enjoyed it and did such a good job! 

CALEB

Caleb learned about inventors and inventions this week.  He chose to do a presentation in his class about why Legos were invented.  It started with a desire to have toys that would stick together (rather than blocks that would fall over).  After several failed attempts at wooden toys, the founder of Lego came across a plastic mold machine and the idea for Lego began.  Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs were made before Lego by different inventors, but all were a desire to build toys that would stick together better as children built.  

Caleb did a great presentation, answered questions, and spent lots of time building other things as well.  He also learned about static electricity and practiced "seeing" it using a balloon.  What a fun week!  

January 17 - 21

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston memorized the Preamble to the Constitution.  Marissa didn't want him to be the only one so she memorized it as well.  

Preston also wrote papers for his Shakespeare class and for Key of Liberty.  He also started reading "The Great Little Madison" which is his next book for Key of Liberty.

MARISSA

Marissa finished reading "Harriet Tubman" and had her book discussion.  She loved learning about the Underground Railroad.

CALEB

Caleb has been working a little bit more on his handwriting.  He's practicing all the strokes before learning to put them together in letters.  He's doing well.

He also had a lot of fun making stuff this week.  He made a snowman out of marshmallows and also made a molecular structure (that he turned into a porcupine) out of playdough. 

January 10 - 14

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston had a really busy week this week!  He finished reading "Freedom Factor" for his Key of Liberty class.  He also read "The Cedar Post" for his colloquia book discussion on Friday.  He loved the book and related to the teenager in it a lot.  

He also had his Shakespeare feast to celebrate all the hard work he did last semester for his class.  The kids all earned royalty status from reading, listening to and watching at least 17 Shakespeare plays.  They were treated like royalty with fancy chairs and decorations.  The parents were there, but we were considered peasants and had to sit in a different section.  The classical acting class were the kitchen staff and served all of us.  It was so much fun and a beautiful event!

MARISSA

Marissa did some building for her tech class this week.  She built a really cool structure with blocks that actually works.  She also did language arts and handwriting in cursive, but I didn't get a picture for some reason.

CALEB

Caleb spent his time this week reading as well as working on Fast Phonics and Math Seeds on the computer.  

December 20 - January 8

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has been reading a book called "The Freedom Factor" for his Key of Liberty class.  He also spent a lot of time during the Christmas break building Lego sets, filming for his tech class and playing math games like Chess, Monopoly and a new game we got called "Fracto" to practice fractions.  

MARISSA

Marissa has been creating lots of things for her tech class.  She made three or four Doodle Crates, Kiwi Crates and created a fairy garden from a kit she received for Christmas.  She also helped Caleb with his Kiwi Crate building.  

CALEB

Caleb made two Kiwi Crates.  One taught him about tension through pushing and pulling.  The other one was all about the printing press, where he got to make his own stamp and print.  We had a lot of fun learning about these things.  He also built TONS of Lego sets, played with blocks and read lots of books.